Where We Are
Our original office was based in Portal, Arizona, a small village of birding fame in Southeast Arizona, right in our founder’s home. And while we still have staff working in the Portal area, our staff works remotely from all over the country.
How to Reach Us
We value your questions and interest in our tours, and are happy to answer questions. Email is the best way to reach us at all times; we are online all day, and this is our fastest response.
Please email travel@naturalistjourneys.com if you have questions about booking a trip or clientservices@naturalistjourneys.com if you have questions about a trip you’ve already booked.
Office Hours
We answer phones Monday through Friday, 9:00 AM – 4:00 PM Mountain Time.
Please call 866-900-1146.
Please leave a detailed message if you call after hours.
Please Note
- We have someone on-call for traveler emergencies. If you call after hours, you will have the option to choose an after-hours emergency line. We check phones and messages every few hours. We also share the contact information for all our hotels with travelers for further or alternate assistance. Travelers also have emergency cell contacts for us to use with voice or text.
- If you are not reaching us by phone, please try again! Note that the phones roll over to voicemail if we are on another line. Please DO leave a message; your call is important to us!
Small, but Special!
We are a small company that handles the operations of all our tours, in addition to sales, registrations, and bookings. This way we see the process all the way through and can give very personal service. Please be patient with our team if a response is not immediate.
Our Staff
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Founder, Co-Owner & CEO
Peg Abbott is the owner and lead guide of Naturalist Journeys, LLC. She has been designing, guiding, and organizing natural history tours for more than 25 years, working for the National Audubon Society and other organizations before launching Naturalist Journeys, LLC in 1998. Her work has taken her from Alaska to Africa and Argentina, as well as many other locations around the world. She has conducted research on several bird and mammal species and keeps a close interest in Yellowstone and Mexican wolf reintroduction projects. Her interests include all aspects of natural history and geology. After 20 years in and around the Yellowstone area, Peg relocated in 2003 to the birding mecca of Portal, AZ. -
Co-Owner & CMO
Julie joined Naturalist Journeys in 2015, first simply editing itineraries while her babies napped. What started as just a few hours a week quickly grew in both time and responsibility on the sales and marketing side of the business, and within a few years, Julie took the lead on the marketing team. In early 2024 Julie officially became part owner of Naturalist Journeys. She and her husband prioritize travel for their young family, working hard to ensure their daughters grow up as world citizens through both cultural and wildlife experiences. Julie loves spending most of her non-office hours outside with her family and dogs in her home in Central Iowa. -
Sales Manager
Jessie first began working with Naturalist Journeys groups as an outside partner, facilitating tours on a TNC property in Colorado. She officially joined the NJ team a few years later in 2019, editing documents before transitioning to travel planning and sales. Now the Sales Manager, she enjoys sharing her love of wildlife and new experiences with like-minded travelers. When she isn’t working, you can probably find her outside with her animals at home in Montana. -
Administrative Manager
Vernie fell in love with birding in Southern Arizona in 2011 through his love of photography, starting out with just a camera and guide book. He started guiding in 2021 with his wife’s non-profit S.A.A.W.R. and the Tucson Audubon leading bird outings for people with disabilities. Though Vernie is primarily the Office Administrator at Naturalist Journeys, he does get the chance to guide from time to time. His excitement in seeing a Turkey Vulture (his favorite bird) for the 50th time or a lifer is contagious, and he has a true passion for helping others find, identify, and enjoy birds. As an avid mountain biker, he also started a non-profit focusing on trail maintenance and reopening trails after the devastating fires in the Catalina Mountains in 2003, overseeing thousands of hours of volunteer trail work. His favorite place to be is in Southern Arizona exploring along the Santa Cruz River or high up in one of the Sky Islands. -
Marketing Coordinator
Amelia joined Naturalist Journeys in 2021 and works as the company's Marketing Coordinator. Her favorite part of the job is sharing the joys of birding and group travel with clients. While she is based in southern Ohio, Amelia loves to travel and explore new places. When she's not working, she enjoys cooking and spending time with in her garden. -
Sales
Laura’s love of the outdoors grew from being raised along the shores of the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. She enjoys hiking and birding throughout the region, but is also passionate about exploring other diverse ecosystems across the country and abroad. She makes up half of our sales team and enjoys helping Naturalist Journeys clients book their birding adventures. -
Client Services
Emily has always had a passion for exploring the outdoors and brings a strong background in biology and conservation to her work in the Client Services department at Naturalist Journeys. Her favorite part of the job is helping others feel confident and prepared when going somewhere new. She cherishes group-travel's ability to share diverse cultures, birds and food with like-minded people. When she’s not traveling, Emily calls Maine home, where she enjoys tidepooling, skiing, trail running, and being perpetually rebuffed by her cat. -
Client Services
Christina grew up in Brooklyn, New York, and moved to the southwest to experience the great outdoors. She spent many years hiking and exploring various parts of the country, including Colorado and New Mexico, Yosemite, Yellowstone and the Pacific Northwest. After returning to the east and working for many years in the beauty industry, she retired and moved to Portal, Arizona. While not an avid birder, she enjoys all aspects of the natural world, including wildlife and geology. Christina has enjoyed working with Naturalist Journeys for more than eight years. -
Client Services
Elissa was a city girl (NYC) until heading west to Arizona in 1976, where she finally felt “at home” in the heat and landscape of the Sonoran Desert. This move brought her into the world of tour guide/interpreter at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum & Sabino Canyon and as a National Park Ranger at Devil’s Tower National Monument, where birding became a focus. After many “careers”, including hummingbird bander, she landed at Naturalist Journeys in 2018, as the Accounts Receivable manager. She, and her rock climber husband, love exploring the world and discovering its wonders. They’ve built a cozy home in midtown Tucson which they share with their two cats and when she’s not at home, she can be found weight lifting, growing yummy veggies in her community garden and singing in an acappella quartet. -
Client Services
Kris joined NJ in early 2023 and came to us with a background in teaching. She enjoys helping clients, and chatting with them about their adventures. A lifelong nature lover, Kris is particularly passionate about marine mammals and whale conservation. When she is not at home in Northeast Ohio with her cats and dog, she enjoys going to the ocean and being out on the water whale watching. -
Client Services
Eve was born and raised in Connecticut until deciding to take a break from the winters and spend some adventure time in Arizona. The one-year adventure turned into 34 years of loving the beautiful desert. The magnificent mountains and breathtaking sunsets never get old. In 2021, she joined Naturalist Journeys; her current role is to track and report the arrival and departing flights of our travelers. In her spare time, she enjoys travel, reading and spending time with her family and friends. -
Special Projects
Becky joined Naturalist Journeys in April of 2023 working on special projects. She and her family moved from Texas to Tucson in 2019 and she absolutely loves living in Arizona, enjoying such a variety of interesting places to explore, varying climates, and much less humidity! She wears many hats; Mom/advocate of a wonderful son with special needs, baritone in a women's barbershop chorus and quartet, massage therapist, and an avid nature lover. -
US Operations
Cristy came to us in 2022 with a background in international travel and now works on domestic tours. She lives in the Southeast, loves nature and wildlife, and has volunteered with various animal organizations locally and abroad. In her free time she enjoys art, reading, photography, and taking road trips with her dog (especially to the mountains or beach). -
US Operations
Rick lives in Oakland, NJ with his wife Patricia and two adult children, Jack and Annabel. Rick has led birding trips for a number of years as a volunteer for various local nonprofits, and for Oakland residents in his town's 40-acre Great Oak Park. For over 30 years he has counted birds on annual big days to raise dollars for endangered species recovery efforts in his home state. His passion for conservation started during his college years at Rutgers where he majored in Biology, and he has been a trustee of the Conserve Wildlife Foundation of NJ since 2000. His volunteer and fundraising efforts for The Raptor Trust, the largest wild bird rehabilitation center on the east coast, resulted in his addition to their board of trustees in 2018. One of his favorite areas to visit is Central America and he has hosted tours for Naturalist Journeys in Costa Rica, Panama, Guatemala, and Belize. In his spare time besides birding, Rick enjoys playing street hockey, fishing, and visiting the jersey shore, especially Cape May. -
International Operations
Tina joined NJ in 2023 and is Peg's right hand on the International Operations team. She grew up on the east coast and moved west after college. Tina was a biologist for the National Parks System for 10 years and worked in private industry as a biologist before that. Tina splits her year living in Cottonwood, Arizona and Fernie, British Columbia, where she spends her free time birding, doing photography, traveling with friends, trail running and mountain biking, and hanging out with her dogs. -
Accounting, International Operations
Kylee started with Naturalist Journeys in March 2022. Her roles have ranged from being an assistant to Peg, international operations, and she has since added accounting to her spectrum of responsibilities for the company. Kylee went to college for psychology then switched to business with a minor in accounting. In her free time, she loves to hangout outside with her toddler and her family's animals. She loves to learn new things and constantly tries to expand her knowledge. Some of her hobbies include reading, photography, and gardening. She is currently trying to increase her knowledge of ornithology. -
Accounting
Tamara started working with Naturalist Journeys in 2016. Nowadays she works mainly on the finance team with accounts payable. She grew up in Eureka, Montana, seven miles from the Canadian border and moved to New Mexico to attend graduate school at New Mexico State University. She met her future husband in Las Cruces and they now live in Rodeo, New Mexico, on their family cattle ranch with many cows, horses, dogs, cats, and chickens (and the occasional goat). Tamara loves to travel and meet new people … and practice birding! -
Special Projects
Growing up on a fish hatchery, Laurel developed a deep love for nature at a young age, along with an early introduction to birding and the Portal, AZ area. Since childhood, she has known the thrill of searching for the Elegant Trogon. Her most cherished travel memories include swimming with elephants in Thailand and hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. After spending 10 years on Hawaii’s Big Island, she longed for an even deeper connection to nature, leading her back to her childhood home in Portal in 2017. Though she worked with Peg Abbott for years, she officially joined the Naturalist Journeys staff in 2024.